North Carolina Food Hubs Economic Impact

$3.7M

In food purchases

120,880

Boxes of fresh, local food distributed

562

NC Producers

127

Community Partners

86%

Median Percentage of NC Food Hub Collaborative’s producers that are small farmers

Top four market channels by sales

Restaurants

$1,516,921

Grocery Stores

$1,461,235

Individual Consumers

$877,938

Community Organizations

$850,331

91% of food hubs expect increasing sales through community organizations

45% of food hubs report planning to enter into healthcare/hospital markets in the future

Successes

Policy & Advocacy

  • In partnership with other food hubs outside of the Collaborative, successfully lobbied the State for $4M in food hub infrastructure funding (2023)

  • Participation in both LFPA & LFPA+ (Local Food Purchasing Agreement program) that draws down $21M in local food purchasing dollars for food access and pays fair market value to farmers

  • Active partnership with NC Dept. of Agriculture to expand reach and impact of federally-directed funds for local food

Evaluation & Analysis

  • Commissioned an economic impact assessment of NC food hubs across the state

  • Evaluation of LFPA (farmers, food hubs, pantries and clients) to document impact and build the case for continued funding

Capacity Building

  • Provided investment in technology and marketing for food hubs across the Collaborative

  • Building capacity through peer-to-peer consulting, shared consultants and resource directory, and organizational development support

  • Working to increase and formalize hub-to-hub transactions

  • Host an annual convening to share best practices and highlight emerging trends

Regional Efforts

  • Joint fundraising to expand project scope and impact (e.g. USDA ClimateSmart Commodities Grant, USDA Southeast Regional Food Business Center)

  • Participation and collaboration around regional planning and evaluation efforts and Healthy Opportunities Pilot

  • Brokering partnerships with institutional markets

In 2023, Matson Consulting performed a statewide economic analysis of food hubs in North Carolina. Eleven North Carolina food hubs contributed information about their operations to this study, including all eight food hubs in the NC Food Hub Collaborative.  

Both statewide economic impacts and aggregated data from the eleven survey responses are included in the report. You can download the full report here